Control drive



June 1962 V c. BRAITHWAITE 3,037,355

' CONTROL DRIVE Filed Feb. 27, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 .7nvenf0r:

June 5, 1962 c. BRAITHWAITE CONTROL DRIVE 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb.27, 1961 Fig.3

June 5, 1962 c. BRAITHWAITE 3,037,355

CONTROL DRIVE Filed Feb. 27, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 & l 4 k f iaizJnvenfor:

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3,037,355 CONTRGL DRIVE tlharies Rraithwaite, Deal, Kent, England,assignor to Licentia FatentNerwaitungs-Gm.b.H., Frankfurt am Main,Germany Filed Feb. 27, 136i, Ser- No. 91,982 Qiaims priority,application Great Britain Mar. E, 19st 4 (Ziaims. (ill. 60-97 Thepresent invention relates to control drives.

More particularly, the present invention relates to rotary-vane motordrives for a control shaft, such as the rudder head or stabilizer finhead of a ship, aircraft and the like.

Drives for rudders and also for stabilizing fins are structural elementsthe failure of inadequate operation of which may greatly endanger thecraft equipped therewith and hence also its crew. Although this alsoapplies to rotary-vane drives, the only provision hitherto made tosafeguard such installations has been to replace a singlepressure-medium pump by two such pumps which are independent of oneanother and which can be connected selectively to the rotary-vane motordriving the rudder or the stabilizing fin.

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a rotary-vanedrive of this type which, in comparison with the installationspreviously known, ofiers greater reliability in operation and alsoimproved maneuvering characteristics of the craft, particularly atrelatively low traveling speed, with the minimum possible additionaltechnical expenditure.

According to the invention, this object is achieved in a rotary vanedrive of the above-mentioned type, essentially by the provision of tworotary-vane motor means arranged coaxially with the rudder head orstabilizer fin head. In one embodiment of the invention, the tworotary-vane motor means may be advantageously combined to form onestructural unit in which case these motor means preferably have both acommon stationary and a common rotary part.

Furthermore, according to another feature of the invention, the rotaryvanes of the two motor means may either be arranged one above the other,or the rotary vanes of the one motor means may lie in the sametransverse plane as the rotary vanes of the other motor means. In thelatter case, the pressure chambers of the two rotary-vane motor meansmay be placed alternately side-by-side in the circumferential direction.

In all the embodiments of the invention, the two rotary vane motor meansmay, in a manner known per se, either be carried in accordance with theinvention by the rudder head together with all the other parts of thedrive, or the stationary part of the rotary-vane motor means may besecured directly to the body of the ship or aircraft or the like.

Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent upon consideration of the following description when taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a sectional elevational view of one embodiment of thepresent invention, illustrated in simplified form, taken substantiallyalong line I-I of FIG- URE 2; 7

FIGURE 2 is a sectional transverse view taken substantially along line11-11 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of the supply and dischargepipes for the pressure medium leading from two difierent sources ofpressure medium;

FIGURE 4 is a sectional transverse view, in simplified form, of anotherembodiment of the present invention, taken along line lV-IV of FIGURE 5;

States Patent FIGURE 5 is a sectional elevational view taken along VV ofFIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a sectional transverse view of yet another embodiment of thepresent invention and shows the supply and discharge pipes indiagrammatic form.

According to FIGURES 1 and 2, the two rotary-vane motor means have acommon motor housing 1 which does not participate in the rotation, and ahollow-bored keyed hub 2 which is fixed to the correspondingly keyedrudder head 2a, and in which are machined the superimposed pressurechambers 3 in the form of annular recesses.

The abutment members or partition walls 4, which bound the pressurechambers 3 of the rotary-vane motor means laterally, are fixed to thecylindrical inner wall of the motor housing 1 by the securing members 5.The vanes 6 in the pressure chambers 3 are connected to the hub 2 by thesecuring members 7. The rotary-vane motor means are carried by therudder head. The motor housing 1 is held through cylindrical stopmembers 9 which are mounted inlugs 8 of the housing and are mountedresiliently transversely of the longitudinal housing axis by the buffersleeves 10 fixed to the ship, such as by being bolted with bolts 10:: tothe deck 10b.

The pressure medium reaches the upper pressure chambers 3 through theannular ducts 11 or 12 and the lower pressure chambers =3 through theannular ducts 13 or 14.

According to the pipe plan shown in FIGURE 3, the supply pipe and thedischarge pipe from each of the two pressure medium pumps leads both tothe upper and to the lower rotary-vane motor, a shut-01f valve beingprovided in each pipe in front of each motor connection. Thus, the pipela, coming from the one pressure medium pump, is connected through theshut-off valves 15 and 16 to the annular ducts 11 and 13, respectively,and the pipe Ib is connected through the shut-off valves 17 and 18 tothe annular ducts 12 and 14, respectively. From the other pressuremedium pump, the pipe Ila leads through the shut-off valves 19 and 20 tothe annular ducts 11 and 12, respectively, and the pipe 1112 leadsthrough the shutoif valves 21 and 22 to the annular ducts 12 and 14,respectively. All the annular ducts lead through branch ducts into thepressure chambers 3 of the associated rotary-vane motor means, in such amanner that the branch ducts from the one annular duct end to the rightof each rotary vane and the branch ducts from the other annular duct endto the left of each rotary vane at opposite corners of the pressurechamber 3.

Connected between the two annular ducts for the upper and lowerrotary-vane motor means, respectively, are the by-pass valves 23 and 24,respectively, and also the excess pressure valves 25, 26 and 27, 28,respectively. As a result of opening the by-pass valve of a rotaryvanemotor means which is not in operation, the effect is obtained that thepressure medium present therein can circulate freely.

With the rotary-vane drive described, each rotary-vane motor means canbe actuated selectively through one of the two pressure medium lines byappropriate operation of the shut-off valves. It is also possible,however, to connect both rotary-vane motor means to one of thepressure-medium lines selectively. Such a rotary-vane drive is thereforestill operative even'if one of the rotary-vane motor means cannot beoperated for a longer or shorter period of time, for example, as aresult of leakages, damage to or failure of its individual components oroperating medium pipes.

By connecting both pressure medium lines to only one rotary-vane motormeans, higher rudder turning speeds can be achieved with rudder torqueswhich are less than the rated torque for which the delivery of each pumpunit is designed. The rudder turning speed may then be twice as great,with half the rated torque, as a result of the double deliveryavailable, as when each of the pres sure medium lines acts on onerotary-vane motor means in normal operation. As a result, a moreeffective laying-over of the rudder and, consequently, an improvedmaneuvering of the craft is possible, particularly at low travellingspeeds.

Special structural advantages are obtained with the subject of theinvention if, as in the example, the two rotary-vane motor means have acommon stationary and a common rotating part and if, in addition, theso-called construction without covers is selected. As a result of thefact that with this arrangement, the pressure chambers of bothrotary-vane motor means are machined one above the other in the form ofannular recesses in a single rotary-vane hub and are bounded radially bythe smooth cylindrical inner wall of a single rotary-vane housing, it ispossible to obtain a relatively simple, light and compact hydraulicsteering engine without any particular additional technical expenditure.

In the embodiment shown in FIGURES 4 and 5, the stationary housing part101 and the rotatable hub part 102 form two concentric annular chambers103a and 103b which lie in a common transverse plane normal to the axisof the control shaft (not shown in FIGURES 4 and 5). The stationaryhousing part 101 carries partition walls 104a and 104b which projectinto the chambers 103a and 103b, respectively, while the hub part 102carries vanes 106a and 10612 which are movable within the chambersformed by the partition walls. The pipes leading to the pressure fluidmedium to and from the chambers may be arranged exactly as shown in FIG-URE 3.

In the embodiment of FIGURE 6, the two rotaryvane motor means share asingle annular chamber. The stationary part 201 carries a suitablenumber of partitions 204 which divide the annular chamber into pressurechambers indicated at a, b, c and d within which the vanes 206a, 206b,2060' and 206d of the rotatable hub 202 are arranged. The chambers a andc and the vanes 206a and 2060 pertain to one of the two motor means andthe chambers b and d and the vanes 20611 and 206d to the other, thepipes Ia, Ib and Ha, IIb, communicating with these chambers on theappropriate sides of the respective vanes. The two pipe systems, whichmay be interconnected as shown in FIGURE 3, may then be usedindependently of each other, so as to operate each of the tworotary-vane motor means independently of the other.

It will be seen from the above that the two motor means may be combinedinto a single structural unit which incorporates clearly recognizableseparate motor means which, actually, may be deemed to constitute twoseparate rotary-vane motors.

In the above description, particularly that of FIG- URES 1 and 2, therotatable shaft to which the hub of the drive is connected wasidentified as a rudder head 2a. It will be understood, however, that thepresent invention is equally applicable to other types of controls,including the control of the stabilizing fin of an aircraft, and theterm control shaft, as used throughout the instant specification andclaims, should be construed to include any rotatable control shaft oraxle and is not specifically limited to rudder heads or stabilizer finheads.

It will be understood that the above description of the presentinvention is susceptible to various modifications, changes andadaptations, and the same are intended to be comprehended within themeaning and range of equivalents of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A rotary drive comprising, in combination:

(a) a central shaft member and a tubular member surrounding said centralshaft member, said members forming between themselves at least oneannular chamber bounded both radially and axially by said members;

(12) a plurality of partitions on one of said members and extendingradially to the other member, said partitions providing at least twogroups of pressure chambers;

(c) a plurality of vanes on said other member and extending to said onemember, each of said vanes being arranged in a respective pressurechamber and dividing the same into two portions; and

(d) at least two independently operable means for supplying a pressuremedium, one of said pressure supplying means being in communication withthe two portions of each of the pressure chambers pertaining to one ofthe groups of pressure chambers and the other of said pressure supplyingmeans being in communication with the two portions of each of thepressure chambers pertaining to the other group of pressure chambers,

whereby pressure medium may be supplied into said pressure chambers, byeither one or both of the two independent systems, alternativcly on oneor the other side of the vanes, for angularly displacing one of themembers, relative to the other, in one or the other direction.

2. A rotary drive comprising, in combination:

(a) a central shaft member and a tubular member surrounding said centralshaft member, said members forming between themselves at least twocoaxial annular chambers each of which is bounded both radially andaxially by said members;

(12) a plurality of partitions on one of said members and extendingradially to the other member, said partitions providing at least twogroups of pressure chambers;

(c) a plurality of vanes on said other member and ex tending to said onemember, each of said vanes being arranged in a respective pressurechamber and dividing the same into two portions; and

(d) at least two independently operable means for supplying a pressuremedium, one of said pressure supplying means being in communication withthe two portions of each of the pressure chambers of one of the twoannular chambers and the other of said pressure supplying means being incommunication with the two portions of each of the pressure chambers ofthe other of the two annular pressure chambers.

whereby pressure medium may be supplied into said pressure chambers, byeither one or both of the two independent systems, alternatively on oneor the other side of the vanes, for angularly displacing one of themembers, relative to the other, in one or the other direction.

3. A rotary vane drive as defined in claim 2, wherein said chambers areaxially spaced from each other.

4. A rotary vane drive as defined in claim 2, wherein said chambers arearranged in a common plane normal to the axis of said members.

Parker May 30, 1944 Wik Mar. 14, 1961

